Welcome

I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.

–Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

It is my belief that while we cannot avoid pain, we can live inspired, inspiring, brilliant lives alongside it.

Therapy can provide you with an opportunity to take a creative approach to challenges that may have existed for many years, and to find answers that may not have been obvious before. I’m here to support you in the changes you want to make, and to help you push through the places you find yourself stuck. In my work with clients, I use a combination of warmth, curiosity, directness, and respectful humor. I adamantly believe in the individual’s right to self-determination, and I take a collaborative approach to therapy – I see you as the only person who can truly know what is important to you and what works in your life, and I see myself as someone who can help you figure out what is contributing to your challenges, help you clarify your thoughts and feelings, help you learn strategies for thinking and behaving differently, and support you as you move toward a life you find meaningful and fulfilling.

My undergraduate education is in philosophy, and I see therapy as a chance for us to engage in “live-action philosophizing,” with a focus on helping you explore how you engage with yourself and with the world around you. I believe that you have the right, the responsibility, and the capacity to determine who you are and how you fit into your life, and I will help you explore the ways in which cultural norms, familial expectations, oppression and marginalization, and other such factors have shaped your experiences, while simultaneously exploring the emotional, social, and personal ramifications of choosing to create and live your own life.